It has been five years since I wrote a State of the Website address, and roughly about the same since we have done regular updates on the site. The site as it is really just exists as an archive for previously written content and the Australian Gaming Database, which never really officially launched, but is there for all to see. This site doesn’t cost much to host and takes very little time to maintain without active content production.

The lack of updates and content boils down to work, personal life and no desire to write. Back when this site was regularly updated, I was either unemployed or in a junior role in my current job. I am now in management. Life decisions like purchasing a house limited my available funds for purchasing retro games, and we found that we were just as happy to play them on mini classic consoles or via emulation. All the while, prices shot through the roof through increased demand and the drop in the Australian dollar. Plus I hate waiting for stuff to come in the mail, and getting it out in the wild is not really an option.

That third point is an interesting one. I have written about video games in some capacity since 2001, starting with amateur reviews and game guides, and eventually through to paid reviews. When you get paid well for something, it becomes difficult to do it for less and/or no money. RGA at its peak made a little bit of beer money after covering its costs, which is more than most hobbyist sites. Writing content takes a lot of time, and writing good content takes more. I’m pretty terrible at writing now, as you’d be able to easily tell comparing any earlier work on this site (coming hot off the heels of 3 years of full time writing) compared to this piece.

The Internet has moved on from writing now. There has never really been a lot of interest in reading good long form content, and there is less now. Basically anything I would write now is just for me, and posted here or on Frothing Demand. Having not done a lot of writing for some time, I find it difficult and that’s demotivating.

Video content and streaming have taken over. Certainly I have the means to get all of the equipment required to shoot video, and I can edit a video together. We tried our hand at it before to limited success. That just all takes a lot of time that I could spend actually playing the games that this site is about – and believe me, although I don’t write about retro games much, I still play them every single day. That would make streaming appealing, and I haven’t quite ruled it out yet, but I would only do it for my own amusement.

It has been a long time since we’ve done one of these posts, and I have not paid any attention to the market for video games older than the Wii in that space of time. However, I am not surprised by the sheer greed that is going on. We still target listings that are complete in box unless stated otherwise.

This groundbreaking 3D platformer launched alongside the Nintendo 64 in 1996 in Japan and North America, and 1997 for Europe and Australia. It was arguably the first killer app on the system, and blew away the competition. Super Mario 64 was the gold standard by which all other 3D platformers were judged for years to come.

The Death and Return of Superman was a major comic book event in 1992, the mass media success of which could be construed as the catalyst for the bursting of the speculative comic book bubble. Sunsoft teamed up with Blizzard in 1994 to produce a video game based on the arc. It’s a pretty straightforward beat ’em up, but it’s arguably one of the best Superman games ever made, by virtue of not totally sucking. Due to a relatively small print run and a release a year after the SNES version, the Mega Drive version can fetch a pretty penny.

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance marked the debut of the Fire Emblem series on home consoles outside of Japan. It also introduced the world to Ike, who would go on to represent the series in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and the soon-to-be-released Super Smash Bros for 3DS and Super Smash Bros for Wii U.

Out of the mansion and into the city – Resident Evil 2 had players exploring what was left of Raccoon City after a zombie infestation wiped out the vast majority of the city’s populace. One of many reasons why 1998 was the best year for video games.